Fast continuous-tone thermal-dye printer. Resolution up to 600 by 600 pixels per inch. Prints glossy or matte finish with same supplies.

Cons

Expensive. Some settings in the driver don't work as expected.

Bottom Line

The DNP DS40 is an industrial-strength, thermal-dye, dedicated photo printer, suitable for special-event photo booths, for example, or even retail-store photo kiosks.

For most people, including even most professional photographers, the DNP DS40 ($995) is the most impressive dedicated photo printer they'll never be able to justify buying. Aimed primarily at professional photographers—or, more precisely, a small slice of professionals—it offers output that virtually defines true photo quality while spitting out 4-by-6 photos in as little as 9.3 seconds at a cost of 14 cents each. For the event photographer who needs to print a lot of pictures in a short time, and can sell them for sufficient profit, it can easily be a good investment.

Similar Products

The DS40 is obviously in a different class from consumer-level photo printers like the Editors' Choice Epson PictureMate Charm or the more expensive Epson PictureMate Show. The difference isn't just that it costs more. It's also a lot faster, and it's designed for workloads that would kill off a consumer photo printer in a few months, if not weeks.

DNP says that with proper maintenance, the DS40 can deliver several hundred thousand prints over its lifetime. Few, if any, consumer photo printers are designed to make it to five figures. Some are designed for as few as 500 lifetime prints. One indication of the DS40's ruggedness is that even the standard warranty covers 40,000 prints or 14 months on the thermal print head and 100,000 prints or 14 months for other consumable parts. More importantly, you can replace any parts that wear out.

A typical application for the DS40 would be in a photo booth at a wedding or corporate event—the sort of rental that can easily cost several hundred dollars per hour with one or two copies of each picture included. Guests can generally buy additional copies as well.

The printer would also be a good choice for the kind of photographer who, for example, takes photos of everyone getting on an excursion boat at a New York City dock for a dinner outing that goes past the Statue of Liberty. With the DS40, you can easily have all the pictures printed, neatly sorted, and ready to sell by the time the boat gets back. More generally, it's a good fit for any photographer who needs to print a lot of photos in a hurry on a regular basis.

Setup and BasicsThe print engine in the DS40 is built around essentially the same thermal-dye technology as some consumer-level dedicated photo printers, including the Canon Selphy CP910 Wireless Compact Photo Printer. Unlike the Canon CP910 and similar consumer printers, however, which are typically limited to holding enough consumables for about 20 4-by-6 photos, the DS40 can hold enough ribbon and paper at once for 400 4-by-6 prints.

There are several choices for paper and ribbon sizes, although there's a discrepancy between the paper sizes listed in the printer driver, which go as high as 6 by 9 inches, and the paper sizes listed on the DNP website, which max out at 6 by 8 inches. According to DNP, 6 by 9 is a European size that the company doesn't sell supplies for in the U.S. The three available print sizes are 4 by 6, 5 by 7, and 6 by 8. In addition a perforated 4-by-6 format lets you snap off the bottom two inches to give you 4-by-4 output.

The DS-40 can also print two 3.5-by-5 photos on 5-by-7 media or two photo-booth-style 2-by-6 strips on the 4-by-6 paper. In both of those cases, it will automatically cut the paper to 3.5 by 5 or 2 by 6 inches. If you want photo-booth-style strips, however, you'll also want a program to automatically format the image for you. To prove the feature works, I created an image from six photos in Photoshop and printed it. However, it takes far too long to create the format manually to make it practical to do repeatedly at an event.

Each of the available sizes comes in a print pack that includes two paper rolls and two ribbons. Depending on the roll, there's enough material for 400 4-by-6 prints, 200 6-by-8 prints, or 200 5-by-7 prints. Prices work out to 14 cents for a 4 by 6, 36 cents for a 6 by 8, and 40 cents for a 5 by 7.

Given the DS40's paper and ribbon capacity, it's no surprise that it's a big printer. It measures 6.7 by 12.7 by 14.4 inches (HWD) and weighs a hefty 30 pounds without the paper or ribbon. Physical setup is complex enough that it took me a couple of tries to get it right. After getting through the process once, however, you shouldn't have any trouble installing paper or ribbons again.

Unlike consumer-oriented photo printers, the only choice for printing with the DS40 is from a computer. Installing the driver was standard fare for a USB-connected printer. However, DNP doesn't include any photo-printing software. The Quick Start guide suggests using the built-in photo printing Wizard in whatever version of Windows or OS X you have. For my tests, I installed the printer on a Windows Vista system and printed from both the Vista Wizard and from Photoshop.

Speed and QualityTo say that speed and output quality are both strong points for the DS40 is an understatement. In its fastest speed setting, I timed it at 12.4 seconds (rounded to 12 seconds in our official results) per 4 by 6, both for printing individual photos and for printing a set of 10 different photos. For printing 10 copies of the same photo, I timed it at 9.3 seconds per photo. Switching to its higher-resolution mode doesn't slow it down much. With the same photos, I timed it at 16.8 seconds per photo for individual photos.

One highly unusual, and welcome, touch is that you can switch between printing with a glossy or matte finish without changing the paper or ribbon. Instead, you simply change a setting in the driver. Using the matte finish slows the printer down a bit. I timed it at 17.9 seconds per photo with the speed set to fast, and 22.5 seconds with the high-resolution setting.

The difference in quality between the low- and high-resolution settings is visible as a slight difference in detail. With most photos, however, few people will notice any difference without comparing the output side by side. In either resolution, the prints are the very definition of true photo quality both for color and for black and white. Not only are the photos a match for typical drugstore prints, they're exactly the same photos that some drugstores will print for you. According to DNP, you'll find the DS40 in photo kiosks at Walgreens and other places.

Minor QuibblesIn addition to the mismatch between the print sizes shown in the driver and the choices DNP actually offers, I ran into some other minor issues. Most notably, in Photoshop, if you want to print in landscape orientation you have to set the driver to portrait mode, and vice versa. None of these issues counts too heavily against the printer, and all are easy to deal with once you know about them, but they add up to a lack of final polish. The printer itself offers an impressive fit and finish. The driver could use some work.

That said, the DNP DS40 is still an impressive beast. It delivers blazingly fast speed, high-quality output, a choice of photo sizes, a low cost per print, and the ability to print more photos in a few weeks than consumer photo printers can print over their expected lifetimes. If you can make use of the DS40's heavy-duty printing, it can easily be worth the cost.

About the Author

M. David Stone is an award-winning freelance writer and computer industry consultant. Although a confirmed generalist, with writing credits on subjects as varied as ape language experiments, politics, quantum physics, and an overview of a top company in the gaming industry. David is also an expert in imaging technologies (including printers, moni... See Full Bio

DNP DS40

DNP DS40

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.